Bibliographic Information: Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Houghton Mifflin 1993. ISBN 9780395645666
Genre: Fantasy fiction, Metaphorical tales, Coming of age stories, Classroom literature.
Reading Level: Grades 6-12
Curriculum ties: History, Language arts, Science, Sociology.
Awards:1994 Newbery Medal, An ALA Notable Children’s Book, An ALA Best Book for Young Adults.
Note: First book in a Trilogy. Gathering Blue (2000), Messenger (2004).
Reader’s Annotation: When twelve year old Jonas receives his life assignment at the annual Ceremony, he begins to better understand the world in which he lives.
Plot Summary: I Plot summary: The community strives towards fostering utopia society. Citizens adhere to the strict rules. Physical imperfections are not tolerated, including babies weighing under six pounds and the elderly. Citizens who fail to contribute are tried, granted a maximum of three opportunities of improvement. If they fail to improve or comply, they are punished by being released from the community. Upon the arrival of December, Jonas receives his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve. Children receive a Ceremony corresponding with their age, such as Ceremony of Ten. The most significant year is the Ceremony of Twelve because this is when they receive their lifetime assignment by the committee of Elders. The Assignment defines their role in society. Members undergo training for their assignment, in which they assume their role when they become adults. The Assignments serve as functional role to maintain the perfect society, including the Giver, the Instructor, and the Nurturer. During the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas receives the most honorable Assignment. The Giver provides the training for Jonas to endure the responsibility of holding all the memories, encompassing happiness and pain. During the training, Jonas discovers the true methods to maintaining their ideal community.
Critical evaluation: The Giver is rich in symbolism and metaphors. The primary goal of the community to attain the perfect society parallels the goals of Hitler and other political leaders. The irrational methods of maintaining the perfection by eliminating those who are less than perfect is similar to the genocide of Jews by Hitler. This notion leads this author to question the true value of living in a perfect society. Important figures in the community are named by their role, for example, “the Giver, “the Nurturer,” and “the Instructor”. The capitalization of the first letter signifies the importance of title and role in the community and the person assuming this large feat. The substitution of the title demonstrates that each citizen loses his or her own identity and becomes only the function. The initial identity of children as numbers is similar to the prisoner barcodes, a mere number with no personality or individuality. Sameness is regarded as a high value. The maintenance of sameness and perfection requires extreme control. The theme is control-controlling emotions, behaviors, thoughts, decisions, and roles. Citizens lose their ability to be creative and to be themselves. This concept is similar to the Amish way of life, sheltering people for technology and leading an austere life. Instead, they abide by the given Assignments, which are decided by the committee of Elders. The citizens are prisoners to their ideal of utopia. Lowry examines the value of choice when Jonas chooses to make his own decision of saving Gabriel from being released.
Booktalking Ideas:
How would you describe your perfect world? Who make the rules?
2) What elements of the story, plot, characterization, etc. did you find to be the most controversial?
3) How important was the setting to this story? Could it have taken place anywhere?
4)Discuss the definition of family. Families are described as a unit.
5)Explore the benefits and hindrances of sheltering from negative emotions and events.
6)Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of euthanasia.
Challenge Issues/ Defense:
Challenge Issues: Euthanasia —
Challenge defense ideas:
• Exposure to competing ideas provides us with variety, enriching our society.
In the book, the community accepts the challenges of this form of euthanasia: Underneath the placid calm of Jonas’ society lies a very orderly and inexorable system of euthanasia, practiced on the very young who do not conform, the elderly, and those whose errors threaten the stability of the community.
The Giver was included to inform the youth about the value of freedom of choice. In addition, The Giver allows youths to take an introspective look at their own values, prejudices and consider how they discriminate in their daily life. The goal is to raise self-awareness.
Why was this book included?: A classic Fantasy novel for younger readers.
Author Information: I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.
Because my father was a career military officer – an Army dentist – I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.
I married young. I had just turned nineteen – just finished my sophomore year in college – when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine – by now with four children under the age of five in tow.
(Author biography obtained from author website. Retrieved from: http://www.loislowry.com/bio.html)
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